A man who carried out a Christmas Eve massacre and arson dressed as Santa at the home
of his former in-laws apparently intended to flee the U.S., but his plans were dashed after
the inferno he created severely burned his arms and melted his red costume onto his body.
Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, a laid-off aerospace worker, apparently shot some of his nine victims
execution-style in a plot to destroy his ex-wife's family after a costly divorce that was
finalized last week. He had an airline ticket for a Christmas morning flight to Canada and
$17,000 in cash on his body, some attached to his legs with plastic wrap and some in a
girdle. Armed with four guns, wearing the Santa suit and carrying a fuel-spraying device
wrapped like a present. Pardo showed up at the home at 11:30 pm as a party of about 25
people was under way. Pardo, 45, fired a shot into the face of an 8-year-old girl who
answered the door and at first fired indiscriminately, then apparently targeted relatives of
his ex-wife as other guests fled. Pardo was able to drive to his brother's home in the
Sylmar area of Los Angeles, broke in and shot himself in the head. Pardo had no criminal
record or history of violence, and neighbors and others knew him as a friendly man who
walked his dog and was a volunteer usher at his parish church. Friends and neighbors
described Bruce Pardo as a cheerful man who seemed upbeat and doted on a big, brown
Akita he owned with his former wife.

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet saw his fortune and his loved ones' money disappear
along with his clients' when he lost $1.4 billion he had invested with Bernard Madoff.
Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, was found dead at his desk in New York, both of his wrists
slashed and a bottle of pills nearby. His brother said Magon de La Villehuchet invested
virtually all his own funds, along with money from friends and family, with Madoff.

Adolf Merckle, one of Germany's wealthiest men, committed suicide after weeks of talks
with creditors designed to save his businesses from being consumed by disastrous
investments and the global financial crisis. The billionaire, 74, was said by his family to
have been "broken" by the sight of his business empire, which ranged from
pharmaceuticals to cement, crumbling. He died, apparently hit by a train a few hundred
metres from his home in southern Germany. A statement from his family said he had taken
his own life. He was regarded as a modest man who was known to bicycle to work.
Merckle had reached a partial agreement with banks last week that was likely to lead to
their extending a bridging loan, giving him time for an orderly restructuring of his
businesses. It had still appeared probable that Merckle would have had to agree to cede
significant parts of his business empire - which has been described by bankers as highly
leveraged - in return for long-term bank support.

Authorities may add more criminal charges against a financial manager accused of trying
to fake his death in a plane crash. Marcus Schrenker, 38, was captured Tuesday after a
bizarre plot in which authorities said the businessman tried to fake his death after
scamming clients. Schrenker was found at a campsite near Quincy, Florida, with "deep
cuts on his wrists." Schrenker was bleeding profusely when about 20 officers approached
his tent. Schrenker, who had been missing since Sunday, did not suffer life-threatening
injuries and was being guarded at the hospital. Schrenker was charged in Hamilton
County, Indiana, on Tuesday with unlawful acts by a compensated adviser and unlawful
transaction by an investment adviser. The court issued an arrest warrant and set bail at $4
million cash. Authorities said they believe Schrenker defrauded investors through three
companies he owns before attempting a bizarre and potentially deadly vanishing act.

Where one would assume that the flagging economy hits the poor harder than the rich, who after all have
resources to keep them from becoming homeless, the opposite is true.

Recent weeks have seen a spate of suicides by some of the most financially powerful people
in the world. German billionaire industrialist Adolf Merckle lay down in front of a train
after huge investment losses threatened his family's business empire. Chicago real-estate
mogul Steven Good shot and killed himself in the driver's seat of his Jaguar after the
property auction business turned sour. Rene-Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet lost $1.4
billion to Bernie Madoff, went to work, took sleeping pills and slit his wrist.

The poor lose their homes and are unable to pay rent and sleep in their cars. The poor show up in soup
lines and take handouts. The wealthy often have multiple homes and savings and should not anticipate
being homeless of hungry. Yet they commit suicide at a greater rate when their expectations of the good
life are meeting setbacks. Why? Per the Zetas, the loss of wealth is at base a loss of power. The poor
never had this power to begin with, so cannot lose it.

ZetaTalkComment10/15/1995: Human society is rift with status symbols - big cars, big houses,
titles after the name, designer clothing, the right neighborhood, membership in elite groups, and
name recognition. For many, the status symbol looms more important that any underlying
meaning, because the status symbol represents power. Those with money have more power than
those without, almost invariably, as money can buy cooperation. Thus, most status symbols
denote money.

Then there is the issue of not knowing how to survive, of having lived such a pampered life that the
simple skills that the common man has garnered are missing.

ZetaTalkComment9/7/2002: During the Great Depression and Stock Market crash, people in
fact did not die because of the lack of strength in the economy, but lived more simply. Of course,
there were the elite who jumped out window rather than face the horror of living a simple life
and actually working for a living

Per the Zetas, after the pole shift, the loss of power that the wealthy had always assumed their right and
the loss of services by others will continue to depress and blind the wealthy. The poor do so much
better!

ZetaTalkComment11/15/1995:Tumultuous times like the coming cataclysms are great
equalizers. Where in stable times the strong and/or clever take from the weak and/or befuddled
and nice guys seem to finish last, during turmoil the playing field is flattened. The wealthy and
influential, in spite of having forewarning about the coming pole shift and the means to arrange
for their safety and comfort, will be no better off than the rest of humanity. They have all their
life relied upon the services of others, and comfort themselves with some vague notion that
civilization and its administrators will right itself shortly afterwards and they will be able to
return to shopping. The impoverished individual may find himself without goods or services, but
as this is his status quo under normal circumstances will mobilize himself more effectively during
the Aftertime. He will grieve less and ponder his options more, and take risks where the wealthy
sit on the remnants of their toys until death overtakes them.

Continental Divide

Not a month after a coal slurry dam on a Tennessee River estuary broke, spewing tons of potentially
poisonous slurry toward the river inlets, another such Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) dam broke in
Alabama. Could two such dams collapsing within a month of each other be a coincidence? The Earth is
clearly being pulled apart, skewed, with disastrous results.

The Tennessee Valley Authority says a waste pond at its Widows Creek power plant in
northeast Alabama has ruptured but the spill is contained. The spill comes after a major
rupture last month in Tennessee, when a dike released nearly a billion gallons of
toxic-laden ash. The cause of the failure is under investigation.

Coal slurry dams are not the only indication of earth movement. Coal slurry dams may get into the
national news coverage, and thus not missed, but sinkholes tend to only hit the local news. Nevertheless,
they are an expression of the same earth movement that ruptured the coal slurry dams.

One Tri-Cities homeowner woke up to a surprise Thursday morning and it wasn't snow. It
was a strange morning for the Callahan family. The hole grew 21.5 feet wide and 8 feet
deep. The cause is still anyone's guess.

Upon close inspection, the two dam breaches along the TVA waterway and the sinkhole in the Tri-City
area of Tennessee are all located along the Appalachian Continental Divide.

What could this mean? Are there particular stress points along the Continental Divide?

ZetaTalkExplanation1/17/2009: The Continental Divide represents change in the past, when
land was pushed against land, pushing UP and over, and then stopped being pushed, at rest, at
least temporarily. For the Continental Divide running up through the western half of the N
American continent, this push takes place during every pole shift, and the landscape reflect this.
Rock to the west of the divide is broken, tumbled, as what was pushed over does not slide easily
but catches at many points, thus moves in jolts and fits, breaking as it goes. Thus, to some extent,
a continental divide represents broken rock, at least the part that was most recently pushed up
and over might be considered broken rubble. The TVA waterways run down between ridges that
were formed in the long distant past when the Appalachian Mountains were formed. During the
formation of a continental divide, the rock that is sliding up and over does not simply stop where
it lands, as when the pressure releases there is some adjustment backwards - thus the many
ridges and valleys between mountain ranges in mountain building regions. The rock pushed up
and over at the top of a continental divide is thin, the lip of the push, and thus can separate
readily.

Quake Statistics

The USGS is known to be dropping quakes and downgrading them to a lower magnitude, and has been
doing this for years. But eventually the public will begin to catch on. For instance, a recent Yellowstone
earthquake that was listed as a magnitude 3 was felt 600 and even 1,300 miles away from the epicenter.
Magnitude 3 earthquakes are normally felt only 30 miles away. This was obviously not a magnitude 3
quake. Troubled Times monitored earthquake increases and noted a steady increase in quakes up to a
magnitude 7.9 starting in 1995. By searching the earthquake databases provided by the ANSS Catalog
Search with search parameters requesting a list of all quakes between magnitude 6 and 8 for the years
2002 through 2008, inclusive.